UPDATE: Facebook has pulled the plug on this project.
A while back rumors swirled of facebook buying twitter. You may also know that it never happened, and the rumors swirled that facebook was not happy about it. The site shortly thereafter made some dramatic changes to its look, mainly the news feed page, that made it “twitteresque” to some degree. Now, however they’ve stepped up their game.
Recently facebook unveiled “facebook lite” at http://lite.facebook.com. Facebook lite is essentially a stripped down version of facebook. It’s a news feed and your wall. On the first page of the site you’ll see a basic news feed with your friends’ updates, buttons for “write” “post photos” and “post video”, an option to view top stories, people you may know, and links to your profile, events, and inbox. That’s it, no apps, no chat, nothing!
Now, if you’ve ever seen twitter, you’ll notice the similarities right away. I mean, twitter is essentially your status and your friends’ statuses, and so is facebook lite. What is unique, however is the add photos and video options. Twitter requires third party sites to house such content and create tweetable links to provide that functionality.
I don’t know if facebook is just trying to give its users a clean experience similar to how it was when it began, or if this is a direct stab at the twitter market, but I do know it’s nice. I recommend any of you with a facebook account to check out facebook lite. Sometimes it’s nice to log in to a simplified interface and just do what you do best, facebook stalk your friends!
Image Credit: Wikipedia
Filed under: Web
